№ 821. The Odyssey

rahalarts

 

№ 816. Lessons from Lord of the Rings

 

 

A Harvard University Law professor stood at a podium last week and told the graduating class that their credentials were not their qualification. He did it without saying the sentence. He picked a hobbit instead.

The story most people will tell about Benjamin Sachs’s last lecture is that a professor surprised his audience by quoting Tolkien instead of Rawls. That is the charming version. The actual version is that a senior labor scholar at Harvard Law School chose, in front of the next generation of corporate attorneys, to hand them the smallest character in the trilogy as their model. He could have given them Aragorn. He gave them Frodo. The choice was the whole sermon.

 

№ 806. 2026 Happy Chinese Lunar New Year

The opening sequence in “ Eat Drink Man Woman,” in which a delectable Taiwanese banquet is prepared by a master chef, is guaranteed to make you contemplate the non-buttered popcorn in your lap and cry. Not quite as delicious -- but nonetheless enjoyable—is the repast that follows: Ang (“The Wedding Banquet”) Lee’s amiable family farce about generational tension and, of course, food.

№ 754. Para Kay G - September 11, 2009

№ 752. Red

 

 

№ 695. Movies Killed the Radio Star

 

 

    The movies are, once again, not dead. Art forms are more like viruses than animal species: They don’t become extinct; they mutate, recombine, go dormant and spread out again in new, sometimes unrecognizable ways, which carry memories of older selves encoded in their DNA. 

№ 598. Spidey

№ 581. Red Sea Diving Resort

 

№ 394. Toy Story 4: To Infinity and Beyond

Back in grade school, I could not fully understand Velveteen Rabbit.

I couldn't really grasp the core idea in "What it means to be real?" The concepts of "love" and "real" were too mature for my young, less imaginative mind then.  It escaped me how these concepts translate in my life in school, home and play. It wasn't clear how these abstract concepts fuse with my experience, which was still very limited. These big ideas, to be sure, were simply beyond a ten-year old's imagination. At that time, the thesis and the story did not yet connect in my head.

Growing up, the life lessons made the ideas in Velveteen Rabbit no less slippery.

I thought the answer, which was written in the dialogue between the real bunny and the toy, was simple enough. But I also thought that the cliché too neatly tied up the kinks of a metaphor, which I suspected was far more than it appeared. I felt that the idea in the story mimicked the pop songs crooning about romantic love: love has the power to make things truly alive. These pop ideas are easy to enough to accept but somehow I knew they smooth out the rough maladies and many contradictions hiding under the hood.

CCP Art Exhibit

№ 368. Saturday Fun Machine

I started downloading gems again since last Saturday. For a time, Pirate Bay was down and, also, life got a little busy and under the weather.

I wonder how the Game of Thrones would turn out if it were translated into a Wes Anderson stop motion film! For now, Isle of Dogs is enough. More than enough, really. 

№ 194. Gravity and Light

When I think about the past
I think of the surplus of waking hours
Preying on images.

Last, Lost, Lust for Four Forgotten Episodes by Toym Imao

№ 192. NSFW

"In a strip club, nudity is a costume."

№ 158. Special Effects Sunday

Academy Awards: Best Visual Effects Oscar Winners from Nelson Carvajal on Vimeo.

№ 122. Hobbits-es....

Peregrin Took asks a question. I ask, can I explore those drums? They all look too rested.

Legolas is back. But I can't remember him ever in that book. Hmmm..... time to review for the next installment.

Mirkwood is overrated. Yes, giant spiders and woods are spooky. But Mirkwood is like a marshmallow brand compared to the name MORDOR. The name's cadence and inflection alone already give you a sense of doom. Give me Mordor!

And, OMG, Peter Jackson is a hobbit.

№ 53. To Remember Is To Suffer

N is for noir, nimbus, nitrogen and nocturnes, from Lettrines

I read about this film in Gibbs Cadiz's "Forgiveness in the Age of Terror".

A few weeks back, I searched and grabbed a torrent. And when I finally decided to have time, sit down and watch the Cannes Grand Prix winner, the subtitles were missing! I thought, this couldn't be another one of my "French 4: A Nightmare on Kostka" specimens.

Flashback to college.

№ 51. Star Wars

Back in the early 21st century, Spider-Man 1 was shown in tandem with the much-maligned Star Wars Prequels (I, II, III). My friends were surprised why I preferred the Lucas films over the arachnid marvel. Spidey was, by many accounts, better told and more engaging. The prequels were a disappointment, read: Jar Jar Binks.

Jar Jar

First, I'm a sucker for sweeping narrative strokes and the macro-enterprise. Let me count the ways. The allusions to the aging and frayed Roman Empire on the brink of collapse, the Senate horsetrading and grandstanding, the clash of ideals and ideology, the memory of Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (1980s!), hyperdrive and light saber proved too strong a pull towards the dark side.

№ 19. Cine Siesta 2: Midnight in Paris

Paris. Woody Allen. Paris + Woody Allen = Midnight in Paris.


I hope this comes close to the old favorites: The Purple Rose of Cairo, Mighty Aphrodite and Husbands and Wives.

№ 17. Grave of Fireflies

Every creation myth needs a devil.
Every devil craves an adversary
Who will slay him by the heel of her feet.

№ 16. Wrinkles in Time

J. Paul Getty Museum, August 2006. This guy
(I forget his name, probably a Greek philosopher
or Roman senator) looks like a distinguished
Magneto, without his helmet. 

“I don’t really think about that … I’m 34 but I remember when I first went to Los Angeles. I was 24 – an agent who was going to take me on at the time thought I was 35 … I quite enjoy the lines on my forehead because they show my life. That’s my history and I like to see that in other people. Like this wrinkle is due to some girl who broke my heart. I don’t want to escape it in any way.”--- Michael Fassbender (aka Magneto)

№ 15. Conversations

Excerpts from the conversation between the angels Damiel and Cassiel in “Wings of Desire”:

Damiel: It's great to live by the spirit, to testify day by day for eternity, only what's spiritual in people's minds. But sometimes I'm fed up with my spiritual existence. Instead of forever hovering above I'd like to feel a weight grow in me to end the infinity and to tie me to earth.